Star Fox Squadron
by Stainless Steel Fox
Summary: A slightly AU Lylat system, and Fox as a student at the Naval Academy, acting as mentor and flight leader to some fairly unusual vulpine students from out-system. Does he have what it takes to make three very different foxes into a single team?
1. Stage 1 – Briefing

Stage 1 - Briefing

Pilot Cadet James McCloud Jr, known as 'Fox' whenever he could get away with it, sat in one of the seats in the atrium of the Lylat System Alliance Naval Academy at Ringo Island and worried. A second semester pilot cadet, even one who'd done as well as he had in his placement exams, generally didn't attract the attention of the Commandant of the Academy, General Hardy, let alone rate a personal meeting.

The year and a half Basic Officers Training Course was broken up into three half year sessions, the first being cadet training common to all three branches of the Navy, covering everything from physical training, armed and unarmed combat, military law, naval operations, leadership, military history and tactics, plus a couple of electives. After that, placement exams decided which branch of the service they would go into, and if the cadet was suited for their preferred branch.

Fox had aced his tests to transfer to the McCartney Flight Training School, though he scored well enough to go into the Lennon Marine Training Camp or even the Harrison Navy College. His elective course had been Basic Flight training, and as he'd already had a provisional civilian licence for both orbital and atmospheric flight, he'd had no trouble flying anything they threw at him.

He'd also done well in tactics and leadership, and even been brevetted to Assistant Instructor for the tactics course. Which made this summons all the more puzzling. Senior Instructor Kite or Colonel Beaglesworth, the superintendent of the flight school, would handle any unusual circumstances, not old Hard-as-Nails herself.

He examined the holo-statue that dominated the multi-story atrium, showing the signing of the Accord between the founding planets of Corneria, Zoness, Fortuna and Aquas, and the Cornerian colony of Katina. Above floated a real-time but scale distorted, projection of the Lylat system itself, with the multi-species colony worlds of MacBeth and Papetoon also shown, and Fichnia, the most ambitious Alliance project ever attempted, the terra-forming of a world.

He wished Slippy was here to talk to, but the young toad was currently having the time of his life at the Lylatian Institute of Science and Technology. The pair had been best friends since their respective parents had moved to Corneria when he was just a kit. It had been a wrench, but he'd finally persuaded Slippy to follow his own dream, rather than Fox's. From the holo-mail he'd received, Slippy was acing his courses, and already good friends with an Aquasian girl, Amanda.

Fox was well liked, but there was no-one in his life he could call a 'best' friend at the moment, unless you counted William Grey, his room-mate. He'd focussed on his studies, and his placement exam marks had gotten an appreciative holo-mail response from his space-trotting father. His attention switched to the people travelling through the atrium, amphibian Aquasians, avian and feline Zonessians, primate and lizard Fortunans, and the inevitable array of canid and leporid Cornerians.

Most of them wore Alliance Navy uniforms, and an impressive array of rank tabs. It made a young and junior fox feel very insignificant. A lieutenant detached himself from the flow, and came over.

"Flight Cadet McCloud?"

Fox stood and snapped off a smart salute. "Yes sir."

The male Dalmatian returned the salute with a not unkind expression, and indicated a direction. "Good, follow me."

A pad-print secured lift took them to the highest level of the main tower. Fox reckoned he was probably the first mere cadet to ever set foot in these hallowed halls. The carpets were plush, the display windows large, and the view impressive. Ringo Island laid spread out in the evening twilight, tens of square miles of illuminated buildings, skirted by space ports and training areas.

A CDF medium cruiser was lifting off as they walked, escorted by the glowing sparks of a fighter escort. Despite the close integration of the various planetary fleets, each fleet retained it's pre-alliance name, for morale and administrative reasons, so despite being part of the LSA forces, the identifier for the ship was still Cornerian Defence Force, Zoness Orbital Guard, Aquasian Space Service or Fortunan Space Force for their respective worlds.

The lieutenant led him unerringly to an office, which was an antechamber to the office of the Commandant. A large cat with a steno-headset and a large console in front of him, looked up as they entered, and moved his hands over the holo-interface without looking. "Commandant, Flight Cadet McCloud is here."

Receiving what was clearly an affirmative over her headset, he indicated the door. "The Commandant will see you now."

Fox walked up to the door, which slid silently aside, and with no small trepidation strode into the lion's den. This wasn't just a figure of speech; Commandant Laurel Hardy was a leonine Zonessian, who had fought her way up through the ranks of the Marine Corps. Though she had to be in her fifties in Cornerian standard years, she showed little sign of desk chair spread, and could probably still put most close combat types on the floor in short order.

However, she wasn't only one there, and if he'd been surprised at the summons, this kicked the whole situation well up into astonishment. Planetary General Zoltan Pepper sat in a comfy seat off to one side of the desk. Fox immediately came to attention and saluted, first facing General Pepper, and then holding it to turn to the Commandant.

"At ease, flight cadet." said Commandant Hardy in the rumbling purr he'd only ever previously heard at the Commencement ceremonies and over the base address system. It released him from holding the salute until it was returned. "Have a seat."

This was another unexpected honour. A seat unfolded from the wall and hovered over, the same form fitting executive chairs the others were using. Fox was still adjusting to the presence of the person he would never now call 'Unka Peppa' even in his head. A Planetary General controlled the armed forces of an entire planet, from the soldiers standing guard at memorials to the 'fixed' orbital defences and planet-based aero-space fighter squadrons.

Along with the Fleet Admirals, who controlled each planet's mobile space forces, they formed the staff to the Sky Marshal, who reported direct to the Alliance Council itself. Captain Pepper had been his father's commanding officer on the CDF Assault Cruiser Laika when his father had been Wing Commander, and a close friend of the family.

When James McCloud had been forced to resign and become an independent mercenary, Colonel Pepper had made sure that the newly formed Team Star fox had received enough military contracts to keep up with the mortgage on the Great Fox until the Team had sufficient reputation to survive on it's own. Not that they didn't still get plenty of military contracts, since they _were_ the best out there.

Meanwhile the General had left the Fleet, and gone back to school to do over the Senior Officers Training course, returning to duty in the army, and had quickly risen to his present position. This was the path of a future Sky Marshall, who had to have held general command in both Army and Navy, and scuttletail had it that General Pepper was the favourite for the task when Sky Marshall Peregrine Mason stepped down.

Fox's thought's had flashed past as he sat, consciously guiding his tail through the gap at the back designed for such things. Hopefully he'd kept his expression well schooled enough not to betray his nervousness or puzzlement at this situation.

General Pepper spoke. "Laurel, I think your efforts to put young McCloud at ease are doing just the opposite."

Okay, maybe not.

"I said at ease. You're not being called up on the deck-sole, quite the opposite." She pulled up a holo-image, a panel that even from the back could be seen to be a student personnel record, Fox's to be precise from the attached headshot. However, it was noticeable that she didn't need to glance at it when she continued.

"In the upper 10th percentile in all your classes, top in basic flight, tactics, leadership. On the energy weapons and close combat teams, assistant instructor… a very impressive record for a first session cadet, possibly the best in ten years."

Fox could help but straighten up slightly at the praise. It was one thing to see dry report percentages, but to have it pointed out by the Commandant…

General Pepper interjected. "I knew when James' son entered the Academy, he'd prove a top student. That's one reason he's the right man for this task."

"Well before our young charge's head swells past the point of fitting in a command headset, I'd like to shrink it a bit." Commandant Hardy turned back to Fox. "As General Pepper has stated, we need someone for a difficult assignment. Personally, I'd have wanted a more experienced officer, or at least a third session cadet to do it, but there are other factors. I won't give the go-ahead unless I'm convinced you can handle it. It wouldn't be fair to you, or the other cadets, no matter how enthusiastic the General is."

She steepled her fingers and looked directly at him over them. "To come to the point, we are considering you to act as a mentor."

Fox's puzzlement redoubled. Mentoring was an established technique in the Academy. A second or third session cadet was assigned one or more first session cadets, usually with an interest in the area the older cadet was training in. The mentor acted as a point of contact, someone who'd been through the mill before them, a shoulder to cry on, and general support during the tough first session of the BOTC. In practical exercises, a mentor also acted as a team leader for the mentored.

For the mentor, it was a clear sign that their instructors believed they had demonstrated command ability, and gave a foretaste of the real thing. Such things were generally handled at instructor level, so what could be so special about this student it required this kind of build up?

Seeming to read his mind, the Commandant popped three other student files, oriented so the text and images faced him. Just the headers were enough to stop him in his tracks, pull up the railroad and burn the sleepers for firewood.

Name: Miles Prower

Age (LSY): 14

Origin world: Mobius

This was a red fox, well more a light orange, who from his file shot looked even younger than his stated age. His most noticeable features were a head fur fringe, the goggles he wore on his forehead, and a happy, guileless expression. He also wore some kind of advanced earpiece headset, with a transparent panel that seemed able to fold out over one eye, and a loose yellow shirt.

Name: Krystal

Age (LSY): 17

Origin world: Cerinia

Fox had never seen deep blue fur before, except on a rabbit, and if it was a dye job, it was an amazing one. The white markings, both natural and artificial, set it off nicely. Apart from her startling colouration, she didn't seem to different from any fox you'd meet on the streets, though she was beautiful enough that she'd probably have a bunch of drooling males offering to buy her dinner, or buy other things. Her green eyes had unusual depths and gave an impression of intelligence and calmness. A diadem with a green gem rested on her forehead, and she wore a tunic with embroidered designs.

Name: Sasi of Clan Tsuk'Tadish

Age (LSY): 16

Origin world: Titania

Titania meant a Fennec, and this vixen was almost an archetypal Fennec warrior. She seemed to be staring down the camera, challenging it to take a good picture. Her piercing eyes were a luminous violet from a lifelong exposure to the lichen that pervaded the Titanian bio-sphere. It grew on every sand grain and performing the job that phytoplankton did on more waterlogged planets.

She also wore goggles on her forehead and a flowing, multi-coloured headscarf which continued down her back and wrapped loosely around her neck, clearly to be pulled over her muzzle in open dessert. Her oversized ears should have looked comical, but somehow they framed the pointed, undeniably good looking face well.

After a moment, it was clear both his seniors were waiting to see what his initial response was, so he thought before answering.

"Since it's clearly not some practical joke, and stating that none of their planets are even allies, let alone LSA members, would only show that I stayed awake in Galactic Studies, I have to ask, what is going on?"

General Pepper spoke first. "Well, Fox… Cadet McCloud, it's mainly a matter of politics, or rather diplomacy. It's part of an effort to set up closer ties with these planets, and possibly convince them to _become_ allies. I assume what you hear will go no further?"

"Of course." Fox nodded firmly, with an undertone that he was surprised that even had to ask.

"Laurel, if you would pull up a galactic map?" It took a few seconds for the lioness to open up a three dimensional map that showed the irregular, hundred parsec volume that was explored space, either by the LSA or it's allies. Without asking, she'd highlighted the Lylat system near the centre, and the stars that Mobius and Cerinia circled, each on opposite perimeters.

"With the faster hyper-drives, over the last 50 years we've been expanding at an increasing rate. New colonies, new civilisations, new trading routes… the Navy does well, but the truth is the only reason mercenary units like Team Star Fox can make a living is because the navy is being stretched to cover it's commitments."

No wonder the need for secrecy, Fox thought, eyes widening at the assessment. That kind of admission could be a political nova bomb.

"Oh, it's not critical yet, I've been working with the planning board to stretch times between refits, extend the service lives of our older vessels, even redeploy in-system fleet strength to patrols … but if we can't do anything else, within five years, we're going to have problems. We need to start a major ship building program inside of three years to take up the slack.

"But the System Council is dragging its tail approving funding. They seem to think that we can make up the difference from the home fleets, that we can rely on our hyperspace listening posts to detect any incoming threat, and re-call strength to confront it. However, they don't take into account that nominal home fleet strengths include ships under refit and repair at MacBeth and Corneria, and training vessels."

He realised he'd said more than he'd intended to, and sighed.

"Extra-system contact and exploration comes off different budget, one which we _can_ get more funding for. So new allies could be assisted to improve their own space capability, and allow us to catch our breath. And Titania, Cerinia and Mobius are primary candidates."

Fox nodded again. "I see, I think…"

The Commandant interjected, "Feel free to explain. I want to see for myself that you can do more than score highly on tests."

"Well, Titania is obvious. It's the only planet within the system with a space-fleet that isn't a part of the LSA. The whole planet is one big desert, but somehow the Fennec thrive there. Only real export industry, Lichen mining. It's restricted, but valuable, since it won't grow off Titania, and it has applications in everything from closed cycle life support to bio-meds and pharmaceuticals. It gives them the money to support a fleet, and enough influence that the LSA can't really complain.

"The Fennec are a warrior race, big on honour, and touchy about what they see as theirs. No-one could get a kilogram of Lichen off the surface without their say so, and they have ships and hardware built on MacBeth to cover local space, including an armed orbital transfer station with several squadrons of fighter cover. Fleet strength, slightly less than Katina in hulls, but considerably less tonnage since they only run corvette and frigate class ships, no cruisers or heavies.

"That said, Sand Dagger frigates and Alephant corvettes are nastier customers than their mass suggests, as they don't mount military-grade hyper drives. That mass and power generation goes into weapons, shields and normal space drive. Plus they carry externally docked fighters. After all, their task is defensive coverage, in-system patrolling, and escorts for Lichen freighters.

"They are true neutrals with respect to the LSA, but at least some of our in-system fleet posture must be there to cover the possibility that some idiot will make a mistake and things turn nasty. Any planetary fleet could defeat them, but it'd take heavy losses. Those guys are tough, and punch well above their weight."

"So why would we want to help them expand their fleet?" asked Commandant Hardy.

"If you can move them towards an alliance, or even a mutual defence treaty, the picture changes. LSA fleet requirements drop, because that reserve against them turning hostile isn't needed, and more ships means they can patrol more of the in-system, which in turn frees up LSA light capital ships for extra-system duties. Lichen fees mean they can afford it, especially if the LSA can supply funding or discounts on hardware."

"You seem very trusting of their goodwill." It was clear the lioness was leading him, but he was happy to follow.

"My father has run Lichen freighter escorts, worked alongside Fennec units, even fought off a pirate attack on one convoy. I trust his analysis, and everything he's told me. What I could find out for myself confirms that while they are iconoclastic, and not particularly friendly to strangers, they are very loyal to those they see as friends, and if they make an agreement, they will stick to it, come solar flare or singularity."

The Commandant finally nodded approvingly. "A fair analysis. And the other two planets?"

"The strategic position is clear enough, if they were allies, and had their own fleets, they could cover large areas of the perimeter they're on, which would free up more units to cover closer in trade routes. As to how likely that is, while I know a bit about Mobius, all I have on Cerinia is what I know off the news-vids and holo-docs, so I'd just be guessing."

"So what do you know?" The lioness leader probed.

"We already have an 'in' with Mobius, because we helped them overthrow that lunatic dictator… my father's current deployment is escort and ground support for the LSA Marines, and I still find some of the things in his messages hard to believe. Robotisation? That implies nano-tech at a level that makes Lylatian prosthetics look like peg legs and eye patches. And what can only be described as super-powers?

"Before Robotnik… and I don't believe he was really a Precursor derived species, Mobius was a post-industrial society, tech and science level at least at Lylat standards, better in some ways, but the most biggest society on the planet was a monarchy, and not interested in expansion. I mean, they used balloons and propeller craft in places despite having the capability to build counter-grav flyers. And their population level, even before Robotnik, was less than Katina.

"Now, of course, with extra system contact, they're more interested in trade, and finding out about the universe beyond their own system. But from what I understand, they're still repairing the damage that Robotnik did to the planet, and even with Lylatian assistance, that's going to take time and effort. You'll need a convincing voice to move your plan up their list of priorities. Plus in their place, I'd think twice, or even three times before throwing in with another system they know so little about, no matter how helpful we've been."

Fox looked back at the holo of the red fox. "But if that's who I think it is, someone's lucked out. What that profile doesn't say is that he was born the day Robotnik took over, and spent his entire life in the camp of the most important group of Freedom Fighters, lead by the only surviving member of the royal family, and their greatest hero.

"He was effectively the adopted son of those two, though they aren't much older than I am. He wasn't just rear echelon either, for the last few years before the liberation; he was an active member, part of their special ops top team, and the one with his adoptive family in.

"Now, with King Sonic and Queen Sally on the throne, he's the Crown Prince in all but name, and a well respected freedom fighter in his own right. He's also a tech genius who was practically drooling over the chance to play with Lylat System hardware, and a skilled pilot…"

"You do seem to know a lot about him."

"My dad again. We may be so far away that direct hyper-com can't reach, but he sends me a lot of holo-mails." Fox grinned. "I guess it's only natural that he'd meet them, and what with him being a fox and a pilot… From what I understand, it was a lot less paperwork to let him explore the Great Fox than one of the LSA capital ships.

"My dad and Peppy gave him free run of the sims, and he spent quite a bit of time up to his tail in the guts of an Arwing. Apparently he quite impressed my dad, and anyone who can do that is worth further notice…" He paused for a moment. "You knew about this, that's one of the special considerations, isn't it?"

It was General Pepper that nodded. "Indeed it is, Cadet McCloud."

"And while I don't remember, I'd be unsurprised to find out that the clan that ran the ships my dad fought alongside would be Tsuk'Tadish." The general's expression was enough confirmation.

"Okay, so I have at least some basis of contact with those two, but the Cerinian, Krystal? All I really know is that Cerinia is giving a lot of double-dome types nervous breakdowns. Their tech tree is… weird, to say the least. Flying wooden sailing ships that somehow interact with an energy field that surrounds the planet, swords, steam engines and mechanical calculators alongside cold lighting, ceramics that we'd have trouble duplicating and energy crystals that literally grow on trees."

He shook his head. "Oh, and flying riding lizards. And let's not forget the fact that rather than being the occasional wild, and as far as I know, irreproducible wild talents, psychic powers seem to be common, and reliable. On the other hand, they do have a stable, worldwide government, and their unique talents could be valuable enough to buy a lot of space hardware."

"About the only thing I can see Krystal and I having in common, is we're both vulpines. In fact, now I come to think of it, the entire group is vulpine. If she's like the other two, she's interested in our world, our spaceships, is a warrior of some sort, and is connected to decision makers in her culture."

"Well done! I knew that I'd made the right choice when I picked you for this assignment!" exclaimed General Pepper.

Commandant Hardy was more reserved. "Hmmm… I have to agree that your analysis seems logical… however, that raises other questions, not for you, but for the general here. Sir, obviously you want these three to take back the most positive possible reports to their respective worlds, but are you expecting us to give them an easier time because of it?

"I despise favouritism and patronage, and in fact I wondered if that had something to do with the choice of Cadet McCloud, for what looks to be a high prestige assignment if he can pull it off."

She forestalled Fox's exclamation of denial with the addition. "Don't worry, Mr McCloud, you've demonstrated you're probably are the best available person for the job. From their records, they've met the entrance standards, but how rigorous was the testing, and what help did they get?"

General Pepper wasn't used to being on the receiving end of questions, but he understood the need. "We were looking out for suitable contacts, true, but in each case they got no more help than access to the necessary academic databases, and time to study. But if you're implying the examiners gave them a dumbed down tests… That would defeat the purpose of the exercise. They passed the physical and academic tests by themselves. They each got in on merit, and they know it."

Fox looked thoughtful, and the Commandant picked up on it. "Yes Mr McCloud?"

"Sorry ma'am, I was just thinking that it's just as well, at least for Cadet Sasi. That kind of assistance would be seen as an insult, saying you didn't think she was up to it. Considering the Fennec honour code... she might well have withdrawn, crashed the whole ship. Also, can I assume that this isn't the only scheme to make friends and influence planets that's going on? Or is that information beyond my pay grade?"

General Pepper frowned. "We have other tours and visitors exploring, it's true, but that doesn't make this any less important. However, do your best, and help them the ways you would any other group of trainees, and that should be enough. I have more detailed personnel files for you."

"Thank you sir, but no. If I'm going to do this the way I would for more usual groups, I don't intend to start out with more than the information I would have for them normally, their Academy records. If I can get access to databases on the planets… that would be a more useful resource."

The General nodded, "I'll see you receive the latest data. You accept the task as mentor then?"

"Contingent on the Commandant's approval, yes sir." Fox nodded and stood.

Commandant Hardy gave an answering nod. "You have it. Good luck, Mr McCloud. I shall make sure to keep a close watch on your progress. Your pad?"

Fox pulled his PDA from his pocket holster, and the small holo-display flashed into being over the flat palm sized box. The Commandant pressed some controls on a holo-interface that appeared over her desk, and the three student records compressed down to points of light, and flew off in his direction, disappearing as they reached the edge of the desk's holo-display, and appearing on the holo-display of Fox's handheld device.

"Thank you ma'am, General." Fox put his PDA away, and waited.

General Pepper added his own comment, with a slight smile. "Yes, good luck, Fox. I'm fairly sure you don't need it, but it can't hurt. Now, I'm sure we've given you a lot to think on, so…"

Commandant Hardy took the hint. "Yes. Dismissed."

Fox saluted, turned and left, both less and more worried than when he entered.

**Authors Notes:** This is some fluff I'm working on during lunch times at work. I don't know if I'm going to continue it, but I had enough for a solid chapter, so I'm throwing it out for inspection.

I've had enough of 'Fox goes to High school' fics, and decided to throw my own take on the idea into the ring. I've never seen a Fox McCloud story set during his time at Naval Academy, before his father died and he resigned to take over Star Fox. So I decided to see what I could do with it.

Partly inspired by Honor Harrington novels, specifically 'Saganami Island' stories, firstly I got wondering about the actual official Lylat system armed forces. The general impression I get from the games is that the Lylat system is balkanised, with each planet pretty much independent, and Corneria the most powerful. Certainly that would explain why General Pepper's fleet is the Cornerian Defence Force.

I've tweaked that a bit, the relationship is more a Federation, with a degree of planetary autonomy, but a combined System Council and space navy. I also decided to make it's reach more in line with a major interstellar power, with kilolight plus hyper drives, wouldn't they be colonising extra-system planets, or trading with inhabited ones? It also gives the breadth of setting to have trade routes, mercenary forces, pirates and such (once again inspired by Honor Harrington).

I also decided to make explicit something that was never really touched on in Cerinia Chronicles. I don't know if it's canon, but I've assumed species and home worlds, at least for the Lylat system. Canids (dogs, wolves and foxes) and leporids (rabbits) hail from Corneria, avians and felines are from Zoness, primates and lizards are from Fortuna, and amphibians are from Aquas.

Since the other worlds of the system are colonised or uninhabited, they don't have a species association. Except Katina, which is Canid because it was colonised before the formation of the Lylat System Alliance in my setting. Except for non-cannon Titania, which I'll get to later.

So given the setting, how to put my own spin on it? That's when it occurred to me that for a team called Star Fox, they didn't really have that many foxes. So how to introduce some? It went from there, Krystal of course, because I am a massive Fox/Krystal fan, Miles Prower (though this won't be the super-powered Training Tails version) because I am an equally big fan of his. But as in Bridge, I needed a fourth. Since I was already dragging in a non-Star fox character, I considered another.

I had considered Mimi Le Flou, the character from 'Bucky O Hare', but she's more a capital ship commander than a fighter jock, though considering the anaemic 'frigates' SPACE uses as a cap ships takes some doing. Talespin has foxes, but they tend to be archaeologists or minor characters. I finally decided to go with an OC.

Doing a version of Dune with Star Fox characters has been in the back of my mind for some time. Titania is an Arakis-equivalent; it even has giant gribblies (what I called Aleph-ants) the thing that grabbed Slippy's ship in Lylat Wars. So just add a Spice equivalent, Fennec foxes for Fremen, the House Dengar as baddies (Baron Harkonnen always reminded my of a pig, anyway), and Fox McCloud as Paul Atredies.

Peppy as a Mentat ('It is by my will alone I set my mind in motion, it is by the juice of the radish the thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stains, the stains become a warning, it is by my will alone I set my mind in motion!'), Falco as someone like Duncan Idaho… There's so much to play with… While I may never get round to it, the idea stuck, and I thought, why not? Hence Miss T'suk Tadish. If anyone else want to use the 'Star Fox – Dune' setting, feel free.

So, if this idea seems like it has promise, let me know. I am finally back on the next chapter of Cerinia Chronicles, but I'll put lunchtimes aside for this, if people are interested.


	2. Stage 2 – First Contacts

Stage 2 – First Contacts

Fox spent the intervening time between his briefing and the start of the next session in intense research. While he stuck to not checking anything more than the Academy student files he would normally have access to, he made full use of the back ground briefings and analysis of their worlds that the General came through on.

He also managed to get off some long hyper-mails to his father, asking for the elder McCloud's own personal experiences with the touchy Fennec, and the people of Mobius, as well as one particular red fox. He accounted this as different from an official file, as it was no more than he would have done anyway.

Now it was time to put it to use. All three of his charges were arriving from off-world today, and he was at Ringo Island Port 12, the main space-port for civillian personnel. Built like a layer cake, it had the largest landing pads and water docks around it's base, with smaller landing pads for shuttles and atmospheric transports on the higher levels. The spire of a control tower rose out of the centre, surrounded by the weather domes of ground to orbit grade defence cannons.

It was almost a standard kilometre out from the island proper, joined to it by a mass transit line and moving roads that swept across the intervening sea on pillars of stressed pressure-stone that seemed too thin to hold up the ribbon of roadway. Similar ribbons led off parallel to the coast to RIP 11, a cargo port, and RIP 13, dedicated to civillian atmosphere craft.

Fox was sat in an observation lounge on one of the higher levels, looking out over the landing and service pads below. The port was thronged with activity, today more than ever, as most of the rest of the new intake for the BOTC were arriving. As he watched, a light personnel shuttle lifted vertically from it's pad, angled upwards and yawing away from the buildings, then boost out on an ascending path towards space.

That made him check his PDA. Miles Prower would be first, landing in a private shuttle from the MSNS King Maximillian Acorn, a battle cruiser sized vessel that was currently Mobius's only hyper-capable ship. Converted from a 'Robotnik era' flying fortress, LSA techs had installed a commercial hyper-drive and normal space engines.

It was here with an extensive diplomatic presence. While neither Queen Sally or Prince Consort Sonic were there, two of their closest advisors, Lady Scarlet O'Hare and Lord Rotor Uohrusu were. Members of the Council of Acorn, Lady O'Hare was overall ambassador, while Lord Uohrusu was specifically there to investigate the possible two way technology transfers.

He pulled his PDA, popped the screen and pulled the holo-image volume out to it's largest size, a cylinder about 2 handspans wide and deep, sprinkled with icons. He pinched one, a link to the public access Space Traffic Control network. It expanded to a screen within the volume, and he used the associated haptic interface, a flat holo-keypad, to give it the name 'King Maximillian Acorn'.

It thought about it for a few seconds, and returned a table, ship name, IFF signal (MOB-DIP-01) and orbital characteristics, the top of several stacked tables that were less likely matches. He pulled the table away from the application, noting with amusement that the package icon it turned into was a replica of a specific ship, presumably the Acorn, and not the generic one. Then he pinched another icon, a satellite camera viewer, which expanded into another screen. Rather than use the interface to give it the orbital characteristics, he simply pushed the ship icon into it.

Another few seconds, and the viewer screen was a stereo display of an area of space, the MSNS Acorn centred within it. A commercial hub like Corneria had thousands of satellites, nav-buoys, weather and surface sensing, comms networks, and most of them had cameras, and were linked into the near space data network.

Fox paid a nominal fee to a company that bought access rights to the data and could deliver a view of just about any part of Cornerian orbital space, or a ship if you fed them a projected course. There was always something interesting in the sky over Corneria, and now was no exception.

Big, blocky and tan brown was his first impression, matching the icon. While there were fins that suggested atmospheric capability, the hull form was more like a brick, with all the aerodynamic capability that implied. The real in-atmosphere lift must come from those externally mounted counter-gravity pods on the underside… mixed with vertical lift rockets? Worse than that, when he zoomed in on the dorsal fins, there were actual _propellors_. What kind of fruit-loop designed this thing, anyway?

In this case, he'd done a mental rough plot of the main ship's course from the stats, and if they wanted to launch a shuttle for a minimum vector change de-orbit to RIP 12, they'd be launching any minute… There! A claw fragment shaped object fell away from underside, they must have an internal light craft bay there.

Some manipulation of the STC network feed, following a link from the Acorn's record, let him switch POV to follow the shuttle down, at least for the first part of it's trip. There were only so many ways you could build an atmospheric shuttle, and they'd chosen the commonest one. A scalloped box with a pointy end where the cockpit was, and a blunt end, which was where the engines were. Add some fins for in-atmosphere manuvering and you could knock off for the day.

The shuttlecraft record also had a accessible link to it's flight path and schedule, unusual for a private flight, so as it entered atmosphere inside a sheath of plama, he started walking to the internal escalators that would take him down to the correct landing pad.

The interior was open plan, internal rings with a central open space and the escalators criss crossing it, and it was busy. Busy enough that despite the fact that he only had a fraction of the distance to travel, he arrived at the landing bay lounge only a moment before the shuttlecraft dropped out of the sky onto the landing pad outside, it's gliding movement showing it handled VTOL with thrusters on the underside, supplemented by counter gravity.

Even before the swirls of dust from the under-jets had died away, a hatch had slid aside, and a ramp slid down. Framed in the opening, a rabbit, who's casual clothing didn't hide her cybernetic arm and legs, was hugging a younger fox. He glanced, slightly embarrassed, at the terminal before returning the hug, but it was certainly sincere.

He turned and strode down the ramp, and Fox got his first view of Miles 'Tails' Prower. The teenage fox was dressed in the same undress cadet uniform Fox was in, and a luggage unit followed him on it's own counter grav support and a come-along lead, like a well trained pet. But there was something odd about his appearance, which clicked when he reached the doors of the terminal.

The younger fox turned and waved at the shuttle, which was already prepping for take-off, and Fox saw for the first time that the kid had two tails. The source of Tails' nickname then, his father hadn't mentioned it in his messages. Probably one of Peppy's practical jokes.

As Tails came in, Fox walked forward, shutting off his holo-display. "Hello there!"

Tails noticed him and grinned brightly, his eyes flicking to Fox's forehead for a second. "You must be Fox, I mean Flight Cadet McCloud! Hi!"

Fox grinned back, tapping the white patch on his forehead where it peeked out from under his uniform cap. "You were okay the first time, I guess dad told you my preferred nick-name. I noticed you noticing the family resemblance too. He happened to mention you preferred Tails, though he didn't say why. However, my vast intellect has deduced a possible reason."

He gave an obvious look at where the younger fox's tails waved. "So lets keep Flight Cadet McCloud and Junior Cadet Prower for roll-call, inspections and exams, okay? But when we do, we do it properly."

Despite the different worlds of origin and species, most intelligent mammals had similar body language, and Fox could tell he'd hit about the right note for Tails.

"Works for me." He walked up and held out his hand, and Fox shook it, firmly, but not attempting to crush it. Even so, he could tell the younger fox was stronger than he looked. He continued. "I was wondering how people would react to my 'multiple functional caudal appendages'."

Fox shrugged. "Well, they aren't exactly inconspicuous. I am curious, but if you don't want to discuss them, I won't ask. A lot of other cadets will though."

"I guess I might as well, it's just everybody on Mobius knows. I was born this way, two tails, perfectly normal everything else. Well mostly…" He seemed about to continue, then stopped.

Fox filled in the silence. "As you probably got in the orientation pack, I'm here to help. First to get you settled in, and when classes start, to help you stay on top of them."

Tails looked at him slightly lopsidedly. "I never asked for special treatment…"

"Mentoring is standard procedure. Trust me, you'll find the first session tough enough, even with my help. C'mon, we've got others to pick up." They started walking towards the centre of the terminal, and the escalators, the luggage trailing behind.

"Can't be any worse than hacking a computer terminal in the middle of one of old Ro-butt-kicked's Swatbot factories while there's bots all over…" He suddenly seemed to realise what he was saying and looked abashed. "Uh, sorry, wasn't boasting, just..."

Fox could see he meant it, he seemed genuinely embarrassed. "It's okay, I did what research I could on Mobius. The fact that you get mentioned by name several times kind of says you didn't just stand around holding your tail… tails."

It seemed to help a bit. The younger fox continued, "I had to do something. I spent my entire life watching the only family I ever knew going out on a regular basis to risk death, or worse, roboticisation. I had to find a way to help. Fortunately, I'm a genius, and have a talent for any kind of tech… Darn, that sounds like I'm boasting again. It's just the truth."

Oddly, this made Fox feel more confortable with his task. Tails did act a lot like Slippy, an odd mix of self-confidence and diffidence. "I get you. But I'd try and avoid saying it to much around other people. If anyone understands about having family in a dangerous job, and wanting to help, it's me."

Tails looked grateful that he hadn't alienated his first aquaintance on this world. "I guess you would at that. Your dad is awesome! I liked Mr Hare as well, though Mr Dengar was… wasn't…"

"Yeah, he can have that effect on people. Dad hired him because he's a great pilot, and very good at sniffing out well paying missions. Not the most sociable guy in the galaxy though…"

Fox consulted his PDA as they walked, and talked about his father, and Tails, and what they'd been doing on Mobius. Sasi, the Titanian would be next, another private vessel. Which reminded him. "Not to be rude, but I was trying to figure out why your starship has propellors on. Even if it was a pure atmosphere job to start with, there's no way that thing was ever an aerodyne."

Tails shrugged. "Blame Robuttnik. He was a genuine genius, but he was also a total whack-job. Some of his engineering choices, I they fell under the category of 'because I can.' When we were converting it with Lylat tech, we were going to reuse the mounts for normal space drive units, but it turned out to be easier to mount them in the hull. So no-one ever got around to dismounting them."

"I thought the guy was called Robotnik?"

"Not to any of the Freedom Fighters, at least not any who've been around my big bro for more than five minutes. I guess it was a bit childish, but we _were_ children. We needed all the psychological props we could get. And if you've seen any images of old tin tush, you'll understand why. The image of kicking his tin can back and forth across Mobius got us through some bad times."

"Big bro?"

Tails grinned. "Sorry, Prince Consort Maurice Olgivy Hedgehog of House Acorn… You can see why he prefers Sonic, which more a matter of function than form. He's the fastest thing alive. If I was towing that string of cargo pods, he has attached to his name, I'd be unable to do more than hobble."

"I know I read some things I had trouble believing… Aha, got it!" The Titanian transport, an Alephant class corvette, wasn't allowing public access to it's flight path, but the shuttle from it more or less had to. "I'm going to be mentoring for a couple of other people coming down today, and one of them has just dropped."

He lead the other fox to an escalator, and at Tails' curious look added. "Navy slang for left orbit. This should be interesting, they're using one of their own shuttles. It's Titanian."

Tails brightened. "I think I remember from the studying I had to do to take the entrance exams. Titania is that desert planet, not part of the Lylat Alliance. The atmospheric dust means they have to use… cool! I've never seen a functioning ornithopter before!"

They arrived at the terminal where the ship was to land, and sat by the transparent full length window that over looked it. Fox popped his screen to full size and showed what views he'd been able to capture. "This is what I got off the orbital net."

This ship was sleeker than the Mobian one, a running shoe shape with vertical, swept back panels extending from the narrower mid body to past the engine pod. This had dual in-line thrusters and V shaped tail fins with what a quick reference check conformed was the T'suk Tadish clan insignia on.

At the time he'd been able to pick it up, it was seen from above already making atmospheric entry, the nose sheathed in the plama flowing off it's shields. Military entry protocol, dropping striaght from orbit and aero-braking, rather than slowing down outside the atmosphere and lowering the ship on gravity control. Of course, if Fox remembered right, Titanian shuttles didn't usually use gravity control.

"Neat! How did you get that?" Tails asked. Fox explained his contract, and Tails decided to set one up for himself. He pulled out a handheld computer of his own, clearly a mix of Lylat tech and some other, presumably Mobian. "If you're going to be around me for long, you'd better know about Michelle."

As he said the name, a freestanding holo-image appeared on the seat between them, a two foot high white vixen who seemed to be wearing parts of an aeroplane, a blue biplane to be exact, down to a propellor boss and cooling intake on her head, paired wings with a twin fox tail logo sprouting from her back, and tail fins on her ankles. However, it was clear from the way they moved that they were as much a part of her as her ears or tail.

She gave a smile and a cheery salute to Fox. "MyShell actually, since Tails built me around core heuristic programming donated from Queen Sally's computer Nichole, or mummy as I call her. I started out as the auto-pilot for the Tornado…" An inset image appeared beside her of the blue biplane she was fused with. "But he kept on adding functions, so I'm now his personal secretary, design assistant, librarian, and all round companion. Though I'm not all round." She posed one hand on hip.

Fox's eyes had widened at the appearance. "Heuristic? An AI in a handheld device? That's pretty impressive. Rob 64 is the Great Fox's control computer, a 2 meter humanoid and and he doesn't have half as much… personality. "

The vixen-plane gave every impression of blushing. "Oh, I bet you say that to all the ladies, at least all the ones who are software analogues. Though I prefer the term MI, Machine Intelligence. Just because my personality runs on photonics rather than proteins, doesn't make it any less real."

"Sorry, I guess it is a pretty rude term." Fox responded.

"No harm, no foul." Michelle gave her a briliant smile.

Tails sighed. "When I started out, her algorithms were just supposed to be a more intuitive control interface. But I kept tweaking things, and Nicole helped… she became a fully developed person, more so than some biological people I know. I've always felt it was far to close to slavery to have that much control over someone, so I've offered her the freedom to leave, whatever kind of cybernetic frame she wants…"

The holograpic vixen-plane folded ther arms, looking up at the younger fox. "Like I'd ever leave you. Who'd remind you to eat and sleep when you go off on one of those week long inventing sessions? Who'd remember where you left your 3/8ths hydro-spanner? The only way you're getting rid of me is to tell me to go, and that's my final decision."

She shifted into the form of a regular vixen with a business suit and big wire rimmed glasses and looked up at Fox. "I was monitoring your earlier conversation, I hope you don't mind. If you'll just package the links and pass them to me, I'll set things up. I already have Lylat style data interface protocols loaded. What's your universal ID?"

Fox, somewhat bemused, told her, then punched the open button on the airlock image that had appeared at the edge of his holo-display, picked the links up and passed them through it. They appeared floating around Michelle's head, and she plucked them out of the air and flattened them onto the clipboard that had appeared in her hand. "I'll go take care of this, you two may want to watch the skies."

She vanished, and the two foxes started scanning the skies. They were quickly rewarded, as the shuttlecraft they'd watched earlier expanded from a dot in the sky to swoop around onto a landing vector. And swoop was the right word, the panels that had been flush against the hull during re-entry had unfolded into long wings. They were made of some morphic material, as they flexed and shifted without visible joints.

As it swept in at a low angle on thelanding pad, the nose came up and it ascended slightly, the flexing wings back-winging to slow it to a stall. Rocket thrusters flared from the underside, lowering it to the ground, and landing skids extruded.

Since it clearly didn't use counter-gravity to support it's weight, the rocket thrust had been more violent than that of the Mobian shuttle, and it was several minutes before the thernmally reactive material of the pad changed from red to the regular white, indicating it had cooled enough to walk on. A rear ramp, more a cargo hatch than a personnel lock, opened up between the engines, and the second member of their group appeared.

She, like Tails, was slightly shorter than Fox, excepting her ears which made her slightly taller in all. She wore her multi-hued headscarf desert fashion, loose end tucked into the neck of her clothes, but she had on her undress uniform, and carried a duffle pack.

That surprised Fox, who had half expected her to be clad in the light coloured, loose, multi-layer clothing that was the standard Titanian costume, designed for cooling and protection against the intense sunlight and omni-present dust. If he remembered right, the weave trapped and purified water, wicking it to storage straws in the trimming.

Fox simply bowed slightly in her direction, Titanians didn't shake hands. "Sasi of clan T'suk Tadish?"

She dipped her head slightly in return. "And you must be James of family McCloud."

Fox tried not to grin. "More or less, I prefer the name 'Fox'."

"Understood. Then I am just Sasi, but since you were being formal, I was as well. You half looked like you expected me to spit on the floor." She tilted her head slightly in a quizzical manner.

Fox shook his head. "I know the about the water gift ritual, and I know it is only done between people of high status on formal occasions. I don't rate it, and neither does this situation."

That got him a nod of approval. "You have studied our ways?"

"A little, there's not much in the way of references on your culture in the public access databases." He didn't add that he'd had access to some better ones.

"We do keep ourselves to ourselves, but that causes it's own problems. I know lot of Lylatians imagine us to be barely civilised, bloodthirsty barbarians. Pfeh!" She wrinkled her muzzle as if smelling something unpleasant. "We prize the warrior virtues, honour, courage, respect. One of the things I hoped to understand by joining the Lylat System Alliance Navy is how they see them."

"Well, I'm here to help." Fox responded.

"I don't need a baby sitter… I'm already a blooded warrior."

"If you needed a baby-sitter, you wouldn't be here. But most of the other cadets haven't seen combat, even some of the third session ones. Oh we have some, enlisted personnel or Petty Officers going for their commission, but they're the minority. I've only ever seen action from the deck of the Great Fox…"

"Then I will want to see how you measure up. I'm not sure about relying on someone who hadn't fought for real."

"I can live with that. Though, there's a lot more to the Academy then combat training. But I'm not going to force you. At least you won't have any problem with Tails here."

"Oh boy, I really wish you hadn't done such thorough research…" Tails muttered. He held out his hand, realised she wasn't moving to shake it, remembered what Fox had done and dipped his head instead. "Hi, I'm Miles Prower… uh, just call me Tails, all my friends do, and I hope you'll be one."

That got him the quizzical head tilt look. "You don't seem a warrior… you have fought in combat?"

"I can tell you about it in detail later, but yes, on my home world, Mobius, as a Freedom Fighter."

"I've not heard of Mobius, but I would like to know more." If she wasn't entirely convinced, she wasn't openly denying his claims either.

Fox spoke up. "I figured we'd go to a coffee shop or something after you got your gear squared away in your rooms, then we could all get to know each other. If you make it to the second session, you're likely to be in the same flight, and I'm most probably going to be your flight leader."

Sasi gave him a look so old fashioned, it could have come off an Earthwalker. "I have never failed to complete a task when I've set myself to it."

"What she said!" added Tails. "With hard work and determination, you can accomplish anything. That's what Aunt… Queen Sally always says."

That got him another look of curiosity from Sasi.

Fox grinned. "Sorry, _when_ you reach second session. Anyway, before we set off for the dorms, there's one more person we're going to have to pick up, your room-mate for now, Sasi, and the final student I'm going to be mentoring."

"Who is he?" asked Tails.

"She. Room assignments are same gender, at least at the Academy, and usually in the Navy. Is it different on Mobius?" Fox was genuinely intrigued. His dad had mentioned that Mobians seemed a lot less concerned about bare fur than Lylatian customs, maybe there were other differences.

Tails shrugged. "I don't know how it was before Robuttnk took over, but then I grew up in the Freedom Fighters encampment at Knothole. Space was at a premium, and the housing was pretty much open plan rooms, so you ended up with lots of people living together.

"I was lucky, I grew up sharing with only two others, queen, well she was princess back then, though she was still effectively the leader of the Knot Hole freedom fighters, Sally, and Bunnie Rabbot later on. And our house doubled as Sally's office and the planning room for missions."

The young fox continued animatedly. "Of course back when I was a kit, that was as much because someone had to care for me. They raised me, well Sally did at first, and then Bunnie raised me some more. She told the greatest bed-time stories. Of course, I have my own place now, or did, well still do, but since it's back on Mobius I won't be using it."

As Tails rattled on, Fox made a mental note to ask him if that was the rabbit he'd been saying good bye to.

Sasi asked, "What of your clan? Was there no-one who could help?"

"My parents vanished the day I was born, the day Robuttnik took over. We think he had them roboticised, rather than killed, but we've never been able to find them. The Knothole Freedom Fighters were the only family I ever had."

From Sasi's expression, his answer raised more questions than it settled.

Fox was consulting his PDA, the third arrival was from a LSAN courier starship. Hyper-com was pretty much instantaneous across the whole of explored space, but it's range was limited to the power you put into the signal and size of the installation. While in-system hyper-comms had pretty much replaced radio based communications in ships down to fighter size, interstellar hyper-coms had to be fairly big, powerful and expensive installations, the size of a large freighter or dreadnought.

What this meant was that for communications on the outermost fringes of explored space, the LSA had couriers, fast corvette sized vessels which were little more than a power plant, top marque hyper-drive and normal space engines, and minimal life system and shields. This one must have been attached to the Lylat embassy to Cerinia. It had no shuttle craft, but one of the Ringo Island personnel shuttles was going up to renezvous with it.

The fact that they'd detached a courier specifically to transport Krystal here showed how important they felt this was, as if his interview hadn't made that clear enough. They arrived at a the third pad to find the shuttle already landing. After a moment, the third new student appeared, looking slightly dazed, and blinking. She was wearing a backpack, and dressed in a one piece ship suit, which did nothing to hide the fact that she was very attractive. She entered the terminal building, and looked around.

'Wow, she's beautiful!' Fox thought, and the vixen's head immediately turned to look at him, expression neutral. He suddenly remembered about what he'd read of Cerinina psychic powers and floundered for a moment befrore thinking. 'Well I'm not going to aplogise for an honest opinion. But how you look is irrelevant to my job, which is to see you settled in.'

He moved over to her, recalling that Cerinians did shake hands. "Fox McCloud, second session cadet. Here to see you safe to your dorm, and help you adjust to Corneria."

The blue vixen hesitated a moment, then took his hand. "My name's Krystal. I apologise for intruding on your thoughts, but I'm feeling rather lost, and I was reaching out for a friendly mind without realising it."

Fox grinned. "Well it can't be the first time you've heard that thought."

She blushed, and shook her head. "Believe me, I've heard much worse…" She turned her gaze to Sasi. "No, it's normally considered an invasion of privacy and very rude, unless you're shouting out the thought like you just did. Which is why you apologised."

The Fennec vixen was frowning. "I don't like the idea that you can just reach into my head and pluck my thoughts out!"

"That's not quite how it works…" Krystal shook her head. Then she launched into a speech which had the sound of something she'd done before.

"Normally, I just get an impression of the minds in my area, much as you notice people in your field of vision without actually focussing on them. There isn't a word in Cornerian, the best the Cerinian translates to is 'shape-weight'. To actually get more than just an emotional state, the Cornerian word 'empathy' is about right, I have to make an effort of will. Of course, if someone is thinking hard about something it attracts my attention, as if someone was jumping up and down and waving, which was pretty much what you were doing."

She folded her arms. "As for picking thoughts from your mind, you could call it that, though only a Master of Thought would be able to get more than the surface ones. However, your mind has the shape-weight of a warrior, you could go over to someone, knock them down and take their money pouch."

She forstalled Sasi's outburst. "Of course, you'd never do something that dis-honourable… any more than I'd look into your mind without your permission. In Fox's case, you could consider it like loosing my balance and grabbing onto his money pouch without meaning to, or in your case, you throwing handfuls of coins at me."

Fox tried to calm the emotional tone with a joke. "Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, 'a penny for your thoughts'."

It worked, but not in the way he intended. Both girls just looked at him confused. "A old saying here, a 100th of a system dollar is a cent, or a penny…"

It didn't seem to be helping. He sighed ruefully. "Never mind… Let's get your gear sent on to your dorms, find a place to have a drink, and _then_ we can talk about cutural differences and the ethics of mind reading."

Sasi thought for a moment, then nodded. She turned to Krystal and gave a slight bow. "I am Sasi of clan T'suk Tadish, from the world of Tiatania. While I know nothing of our mind, I can see from your posture that you are also trained in the warrior arts."

Krystal smiled, returned it, and brushed the green diadem on her forehead. "I had just completed training as a Protector, our equivalent to one of your Lylat System Marshals, I believe, when this chance was offered to me. I look forward to discovering more about all the worlds of the Lylat system."

Sasi grinned. "Then you have my respect. I'm Sasi to my friends."

"I hope to become one." Krystal replied smiling back. "Maybe we can train together? I have no need to read minds to guess that might interest you."

Fox looked over at Tails, who he'd have expected to be far more talkative based on how he'd been so far. Instead the two tailed fox looked if anything nervous. Of mind reading in general, or maybe just having his mind read? Was he hiding something… his hesitation back when they were first introduced sprang to mind. Considering some of the things he'd benn open about, what could he possibly want to hide? Still, unless he wanted to change mentors, he was going to have to get on with the others. "Tails?"

"Oh… sorry! Miles Prower, but my friends call me Tails, and you can too, not that it's a separate thing from being my friend, I mean, oh darn it! What I'm trying to say is I hope that friends thing applies to me as well. I'm from out-system too, the world of Mobius. If I remember the astro-charts, we're pretty much the other edge of the map from Cerinia."

"Glad to meet you." Krystal bestowed another smile on him. "And yes, I'd like to be your friend too, and vice versa. When it comes to understanding this new world, I shall need all the help I can get."

Fox noticed something else pass between them as if Tails had asked a question, and Krystal had responded. Yep, he must have some secret that he felt he'd given away, and Krystal had shown she knew but wasn't telling.

Could he be a telepath too? There had been mentions of weird powers, King Sonic apparently had some sort of super-speed ability… Odd that dad hadn't mentioned anything about it then. Well if Krystal knew what it was, and didn't feel the need to tell anyone, it mustn't be a problem for anyone else, so Fox decided to let Tails open up in his own time.

"Okay, if everybody's introduced, then let's get going! Luggage transfer is this way!" Fox said, including them all. It looked like his second session at the Academy was going to be many things, but boring wasn't one of them.

**Authors Notes:** I guess of all the stories I'm working on, no-body expected to see an update to this one. Hope people enjoy it, though we still have more surprises to come, before we get to the meat of the plot. Yes, I do have an idea beyond throw four foxes together in a school environment and see what happens.

Michelle/Myshell was an idea I had for another story that I don't have time to do, Sonic X, post Cosmo, Tails ends up making a new friend by accident. Emphasis on the 'making'. After all, he's always tinkering with the Tornado, and if anyone could up-grade an auto-pilot system to the point it becomes sentient by accident, it's Miles Prower. The mecha-musume base form seems logical, though I've never seen it used elsewhere. After all, the Tornado's auto-pilot would think of itself as a plane.

I'll be liberally stealing ideas from my other stories, or making up new ones as fits my fancy. Hope people enjoy the update. And yes, I am working on Cerinia Chronicles, but at home. I have almost a full chapter done, but with Easter and a science fiction convention coming, I may nort be able to do much in the next week or so.


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